Tuesday, November 29, 2022

20 Questions with Richard I. Levine, Author of 'To Catch The Setting Sun' #20Questions

Today's guest is Richard I. Levine, author of the suspense thriller, TO CATCH THE SETTING SUN. Richard is here today to answer 20 questions about his life, writing and goals.

Are you a morning writer or a night writer?

I’ll write whenever the opportunity presents itself. Morning, afternoon, evening, it doesn’t matter. That being said, the “opportunity” means that I have no other pressing obligations, the house is quiet, there’s no construction noise coming from the surrounding neighborhood, and my stomach isn’t growling.

Do you outline or are you a pantster?

I tend to be a little of both. Well, maybe 62.5% pantster

Which comes first – plot or character?

It’s hard for me to pin that down as each novel starts off as a basic idea. Both plot and character develop organically and change along the way. Of the five novels I’ve written so far, the finished product has yet to resemble the original concept.

Noise or quiet when working on your manuscript?

I am definitely sensitive to noise. I can hear people crunching on potato chips a mile away when I’m writing and it’s a total distraction. Maybe it has something to do with the three concussions I had when I was a child (and I’m not saying that lightly). This sensitivity has become so much more pronounced as I age, the use of noise canceling headphones while I write is a necessity.

Favorite TV show?

My all-time favorite show was a 1970s police procedural The Streets of San Francisco. I’m a big Karl Malden fan. I loved what show runner Peter Lenkov did with the Hawaii 5-O reboot and even fulfilled a big dream of being on 5-O in about a dozen episodes as a background actor. Today, however I divide my TV time equally between Chicago Fire (I was a small-town volunteer fireman back in the late 70s early 80s) and Yellowstone.

Favorite type of music?

Instrumentals, especially from motion pictures and television. Music can be the catalyst for everything from a new novel idea, the creation of a specific scene, dialogue and even the creation of a character. Music from Pearl Harbor, The Road To Perdition, American Beauty, An Unfinished Life and many others played an important role in triggering my imagination.

Favorite craft besides writing?

Acting. I’ve had the acting bug—the desire to express myself on stage or on the screen since I was a kid growing up on the sidewalks of New York. I never followed that dream and could easily give a dozen excuses as to why, but the bottom line is I have no one to blame except for myself. However, in 2018 I decided to take the next step. I’ve trained and continue to train with some long-time industry acting coaches, I’ve signed with an agency here in Hawaii, and after 25 episodes as a background actor in Hawaii 5-O, Magnum PI and a couple of Hallmark movies, I had my first costar role in a season 3 episode of Magnum PI. Now that the COVID hysteria has died down, I’m hoping the auditions resume.

Do you play a musical instrument?

No, but if the opportunity ever came up to play a gazoo for the International Silver String Submarine Band, I’d pack a bag before you could say “wait, who?”

Single or married?

Divorced

Children or no?

Two. My son recently turned 31 and lives in the Pacific Northwest. My daughter is 28 and is a Southern California girl. Both have successful careers and fortunately have their mother’s good looks and brains.

Pets?

I’ve always been a cat person. I brought my first one home (a tabby I named Archie) when I was 8 years old. He lived to be 19. Barney, an orange angora crossed the rainbow bridge when he was only 6. He used to sleep with me. To wake me up in the morning he’d cover my mouth and nose with one of his gigantic paws (that’s not why he crossed the rainbow bridge). My third cat, T.C. (did you see what I did there—Third Cat, T.C.?) was a calico that had adopted me. She was with me for 19 years after we had found each other. I currently share space with a 21-year-old black kitty named Buddy.

Favorite place to write?

At home, at my desk

Favorite restaurant?

While I don’t have a favorite restaurant, my favorite cuisine is Chinese, specifically Sichuan. When I was fourteen years old, I got an after-school job doing food prep in a Chinese restaurant. I did that for three years and learned some very good kitchen skills.

Do you work outside the home?

When I moved to Hawaii in 2017, I retired from a twenty-five-year chiropractic practice. As the protagonist in my new novel To Catch The Setting Sun, I had hopes of living in a grass shack on a deserted beach while being lulled to sleep each night to the gentle rhythm of baby waves kissing the sandy shoreline and the sounds of a slack key guitar. But the reality is that everything here is so much more expensive than the mainland and for me, I’ve had to continue to work part time to make the dream work. The best job for me, however, is working on a television or film production set.

What was the name of the last movie you saw?

Top Gun Maverick

Favorite outdoor activity?

Hiking

Pet peeve?

The divisiveness created by politicians (from both sides of the aisle) and the media that’s destroying our country.

Your goal in life?

To be a better human being than I was the day before

Your most exciting moment?

When each of my children came into this world.

The love of your life?

If you’re asking about a person, then sadly for me I have yet to meet her. But I know she’s out there. If you’re asking me about food—I’ll take a New York bagel with lox and cream cheese and a big old Cannoli any day of the week. If you’re asking about an activity…It was sitting in old Yankee Stadium on a hot August night, eating a hot dog smothered in mustard and sauerkraut while watching the likes of Reggie Jackson, Chris Chambliss, Thurman Munson and the other Yankee greats creating baseball memories.

Richard I Levine is a native New Yorker raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. After dabbling in several occupations and a one-year coast to coast wanderlust trip, this one-time volunteer fireman, bartender, and store manager returned to school to become a chiropractor. A twenty-three-year cancer survivor, he’s a strong advocate for the natural healing arts. Levine has four Indy-published novels and his fifth work, To Catch The Setting Sun, is published by The Wild Rose Press and was released in August 2022. In 2006 he wrote, produced and was on-air personality of the Dr. Rich Levine show on Seattle’s KKNW 1150AM and after a twenty-five year practice in Bellevue, Washington, he closed up shop in 2017 and moved to Oahu to pursue a dream of acting and being on Hawaii 5-O. While briefly working as a ghostwriter/community liaison for a local Honolulu City Councilmember, he appeared as a background actor in over twenty-five 5-Os and Magnum P.Is. Richard can be seen in his first co-star role in the Magnum P.I. third season episode “Easy Money”. He presently resides in Hawaii.

Visit Richard’s Amazon Page or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.

There’s a killer loose on the island of Oahu. His targets? Young, native-Hawaiian women. But it also appears that he’s targeting and taunting Honolulu police detective Henry Benjamin who knew each victim and whose wife, Maya, had been the first name on that list. In addition to battling his personal demons, this New York transplant’s aggressive style didn’t sit well with his laid-back colleagues who viewed Henry’s uncharacteristic lack of progress in the investigation as evidence that fueled ongoing rumors that he could be the killer. Was he, or could it have been someone within the municipal hierarchy with a vendetta? As it was, after thirteen years on the job Henry had been disillusioned with paradise. His career choice long killed any fantasy of living in a grass hut on a wind-swept beach, being serenaded by the lazy sounds of the ocean and a slack key guitar. Instead, it had opened his eyes to a Hawaii that tourists will never see.